the Gorean women. I had thought to escape. I was now naked, being sold.
'Seven tarsks!' I heard. 'Seven five!' I heard.
What a fool I had been not to realize that she was not a true slave girl. A true slave girl, I gathered, would not even have dared to think of behaving as she had. They knew the penalties. Besides the concern of a slave girl is not with male slaves; their concern is with free men, their masters.
'Seven seven!' I heard. 'Seven eight!'
'Show yourself to them as you were in the room of preparation,' said the Lady Tima to the Lady Tendite, 'when you pretended to be a miserable little Earth-girl slave'
'Lady Tima?' inquired the Lady Tendite.
'I know what I am doing,' said the Lady Tima to her, smiling.
'But I would be ashamed to be seen before free women so clad,' she said.
'There are only women here, and this slave, and our men,' said the Lady Tima. 'Do so.'
The Lady Tendite looked at her, uncertainly.
'Do you wish to remain in my employ?' inquired the Lady Tima.
The Lady Tendite smiled. She threw back the white gown she wore, still fastened about her neck with its silver clasp. It then hung back, over her shoulders, like a cape.
She stood there, then, in the Ta-Teera. She was exquisitely beautiful.
The Gorean women in the tiers seemed for a moment taken aback. Then, beginning one by one, they struck their left shoulders.
'How beautiful she is,' breathed more than one woman.
I saw many of the women looking upon the Lady Tendite almost breathlessly. thrilled with her loveliness.
I then understood how brilliant indeed was the slaver who was my mistress. The women in the tiers, almost overcome with excitement, were identifying with the Lady Tendite.
Though it was she who stood there it was they who, in their imaginations, wore the shameful Ta-Teera and stood upon the wood of a slave platform. The Lady Tendite smiled, and lifted her hand to the crowd. Perhaps it was only then that she realized that her beauty had not been incidental to her hiring by the Lady Tima. I looked out on the women in the tiers.
'Remove the gown, and put on the collar,' said the Lady Tima to the Lady Tendite.
'Yes, Lady Tima,' she said. She unclapsed the gown and dropped it to one side. From an attendant she retrieved the collar which she had earlier handed him. She stood before the crowd and, smiling, held the collar.
The crowd was intent and hushed.
The Lady Tendite, smiling at the crowd, closed the collar about her neck. The click was audible.
There was an intake of breath. There was a cry of pleasure. Then there was applause for the Lady Tendite.
She stood before them, as a collared slave girl.
There was much applause.
The women in the tiers, clearly, were identifying with the Lady Tendite, and her beauty, as a collared slave girl. The Lady Tima was appealing to, and exploiting, something deep in women which she, as a slaver, well understood, the deep, thrilling desire, profound in women, to be the owned slave of a strong man, to be mastered and to find themselves under the obligation of obedience. I do not know how many of the women clearly understood what was occurring on the platform. Perhaps many knew only that, for some reason that was not clear to them, they were excited and thrilled. And they could, of course, be innocent in feeling this thrill and excitement for, first, it was not truly they but the Lady Tendite who stood on the platform, and, too, she was not truly a slave, but only pretending to be one. How frightening, of course, it would have been had the collar been truly locked upon her!
'My congratulations to the superb actress, the Lady Tendite!' called the Lady Tima.
There was more applause.
I have little doubt, too, the fact that I stood in the near background to the Lady Tendite, a male large and strong, contributed to the scene intended by the Lady Tima. She was very small, compared to me.
'Caress the slave,' said the Lady Tima to the Lady Tendite.
The Lady Tendite came near to me. She looked up into my eyes. She was exquisitely beautiful. Her breasts, swelling within the pathetic restraint of the Ta-Teera, made me want to cry out with pleasure.
'Please do not touch me,' I begged.
She wore a steel collar.
'Please,' I begged. I cried out with misery and shame.
'Ten tarsks!' I heard 'Ten five!' I heard.
'You may now remove the collar and take your whip from the attendant,' said the Lady Tima. 'Then, with the whip, display him as you will.'
The Lady Tendite smiled, and went to the rear of the platform.
Bids continued. When the Lady Tendite returned, the collar removed, her whip in hand, they were at eleven six. I was then, guided by the voice of the Lady Tendite, and the deft touches of her whip, displayed to the crowd. There were tears in my eyes. Then I was made to kneel.
'Fourteen tarsks!' I heard.
'Jason,' said the Lady Tima, 'you did attempt to escape'
'Yes, Mistress,' I said, shuddering.
'Speak up,' she said.
'Yes, Mistress,' I said.
'Too,' she said, 'you spoke at least once without permission this evening.'
'Yes, Mistress,' I said, loudly, knowing that I must speak so that I could be heard in the tiers.
'Do you beg to be whipped?' she asked.
'Yes, Mistress,' I said. 'Please have me whipped.' I put my head down, miserable.
The Lady Tima gestured to one of the attendants who then stood behind me, and shook out the blades of a slave whip.
'Whip him,' she said.
I shuddered as the lash fell upon me.
The bids continued, as I was beaten. I was sold for sixteen silver tarsks. I did not know who bought me. I was chained hand and foot. I remember realizing that I was no longer being beaten. I was dragged, bloody, from the sales platform. I remember hearing the sound of the gong once more. A new slave was being presented before the buyers.
13 THE LADY FLORENCE:I ENCOUNTER A SLAVE GIRL,WHOM I LEARN IS OWNED BY ONEANDER OF AR
'How pretty he is at your stirrup, Lady Florence,' said the veiled woman, reclining in the palanquin, its draft slaves now halted.
'A lengthening of his hair, a white ribbon binding it back, a silken tunic make quite a difference, Lady Melpomene,' responded the Lady Florence.
'I see you no longer have him chained there,' said the Lady Melpomene.
'It was not necessary, as I soon discovered,' said the Lady Florence. I kept my head down.
'I envy you such a sweet slave,' said the Lady Melpomene.
'It is kind of you not to be bitter,' said the Lady Florence, acidly. I held the reins of her tharlarion. It was not large. Its stirrup was at my right shoulder.
'Have you had him branded yet?' asked the Lady Melpomene.
'No,' said the Lady Florence. 'I keep my male slaves smooth-thighed.'
